For 99% of EFL jobs, a class Z work visa is built into the contract as the school's responsibility to provide. Many foreign language schools like to screw around with these and try to hold them over our heads and/or not provide them. Visas are a lot cheaper to get for foreigners before we get to the country, especially in China, because once we are here we have to physically go to Hong Kong to get the visa, whereas before we arrive, the whole process can just be done by mail.
If you get caught working illegally in a country it's not the end of the world. You'll get fined and likely deported, but not jailed or anything crazy. You will, however, have that stigma against you when you try to work in other countries and you likely cannot work in whichever country you were busted in again. As far as the school you were working for illegally goes, they will get a small fine, a slap on the wrist, and that is all. The chances of getting caught are slim, but still much riskier for the teacher than the school.
Now I want to share a story about a hypothetical friend in Songyuan. She got her job teaching in China last minute, so her employer told her to just get a class L tourist visa to come over and then when she got here he would get her Z visa. This friend arrived at the beginning of February and since then has been bugging her boss about getting her visa. At first he kept telling her to wait until more foreign teachers came so he could send them all at once to cut costs. Eventually he stopped making excuses and just blew her off.
Toward the end of April, my friend told her boss that she would be unable to work in the month of May until flight arrangements had been made for her to go to Hong Kong to get her visa. Within a day, her boss had interrupted a class of hers to tell her when she would be going. He asked her to look up flights, since he was so busy. She had no problem with this, as she was essentially planning a vacation for herself and two of her friends (they were also without visas and she had included them when speaking to her employer).
She sent him the info and asked for confirmation of flights and hotels. She never got it. She asked her boss and he said everything had been purchased and set up by another school admin so she should email him. She did and never got the info.
Then, a week before she was supposed to leave, she received her schedule and saw that she was set to be judging the Happy Songyuan English Speaking Contest. As I have mentioned before, the pay for working the contest is ridiculously minimal, you're basically volunteering. My friend had previously stated that she would not work the contest and hadn't been scheduled to do so since, so she went in to her employer and told him as much.
He asked why, she gave her reasons (low pay, detracts from teaching hours, not in her contract and she'd also had her schedule screwed with when she showed up at 6am one day… don't mess with a girl at 6am). Her boss's arguments for her to work were that it was for charity (not true), the school wasn't making any money (the school is actually calling every single contestant afterwards and using the judges' comments to recruit them to the school), was she so greedy (this is her job?!) and if he let her do this then what about the other teachers (not her problem). Then things got dirty…
He asked her, "If this is your attitude, then why am I paying 5K to send you to Hong Kong for your visa?" She said something to the effect of, "Because it's part of my contract that you are almost four months late in fulfilling." His reply was, "I don't care about your contract. Maybe I don't get your visa." To which she said, "Then maybe I don't work for you anymore." He basically said he didn't care. She asked if he wanted her to come to work tomorrow (so was her going to get her visa), or not, and he said he'd think about it and call her later. He never called, so she didn't go to work the next day.
My friend was only so worried, because she had plenty of people to stay with if need be, and the way she saw it, she had three options: 1.) she could easily go work at another school in Songyuan 2.) she could go to Xia'Men early, where she was planning on going in September anyway OR 3.) she could work a two week summer camp in Thailand with a friend and make enough money to travel for a few months without working.
Her only concern was getting her flight money and making her employer pay. Her contract read that if her employer broke her contract he had to pay her three to ten times her monthly salary, depending (on what, who knows). She also wasn't entirely sure how long her tourist visa was good, it didn't say on the visa. All it said was that it was good for multiple entires into the country, but only 60 days each entry, and she had about 10 days before she hit that 60 for her current entry.
In her unexpected day off, she interviewed with another school in town and met with a few of her adult students who are completely awesome and took the day off work to counsel her and help take her mind off the whole thing. Also that day, her school VP asked to meet with her in the evening to get the lowdown. She had texted the VP and her students the night before to let them know she wouldn't be teaching the next day so she wasn't flaking on anyone by not showing up.
Her VP and the school she interviewed with both told her that to work elsewhere in China, she would need a letter signed by both herself and her employer releasing her from her contract early, eek. The VP got her side of the story and then met with the employer to try to smooth things over and get him to be reasonable. She called my friend later that night and said he would still get her visa if she would be flexible to potentially help with the contest in the future. She said no. The VP told her that she does the scheduling, so she would make sure my friend never had to work the contest again. My friend still said no, there's no way she was going to work it, the VP could say whatever she wanted, but if it ever came down to it, she wouldn't do it. The VP said ok.
The next day my friend saw her employer at school and he asked her, "Are you still mad at me?" with a big smile.
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